Hot on the heels of the PS4 exclusive 2018 Spider-Man, Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 is set to be more of a spin-off than a full-blown sequel, utilizing a different lead to tell a story of presumably smaller scope.
Fans who enjoyed the 2018 Spider-Man will no doubt be looking to Miles Morales for a retread of their favorite web-slinging mechanics, while fans of the Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse movie – which starred Miles Morales as the lead character – will get the chance to play their own fave in the Spidey suit.
With talk of 4K visuals and a Performance Mode that will allow the game to run at a smooth 60 frames per second, Spider-Man: Miles Morales seems set to be a strong early title for the next-gen PS5.
Want to know more? Here’s everything we know about Spider-Man: Miles Morales – including the release date, trailers, likely price, story details, and which characters are likely to appear.
[Update: We now have a few more details with regards to the story of Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Read on to find out more.]
Cut to the chase
- What is it? A spin-off from Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018), developed by Insomniac games
- Who is Miles Morales? One of many Marvel characters to take on the Spider-Man mantle, Miles Morales is an Afro-Latino teen who is bitten by a radioactive spider and takes on web-slinging powers (as well as a few others)
- When is it out? Holiday 2020 (so, November or December)
Spider-Man: Miles Morales trailers
There’s not much to look at yet, but you’ll find the game reveal trailer below, which shows our first glimpse of Miles in action across New York City, putting his powers to use.
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This was shortly followed by a trailer recap, featuring devs at Insomniac games chatting about what you see, and the use of Miles’ “bio-invisibility” in the game.
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Spider-Man: Miles Morales release date
Miles Morales is set to release “Holiday 2020”, which is the same window as the launch of the PS5. That means it could well be a day one launch title, though we don’t know for sure that they overlap. Either way, you should be shooting webs across Manhattan as Miles Morales before the holidays.
There’s no mention of a PS4 release, sadly, as Sony is being pretty hard-line about PS5 exclusives being PS5 exclusives. That said, we’re open to being surprised.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales price
The closest comparison to this 1.5 sequel is probably Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a 2017 game in the Uncharted series that followed a new set of characters without overhauling the underlying mechanics of the previous game. The Lost Legacy was also notably cheaper than the usual AAA title, costing $39 in the US instead of a full $59, so it’s a good bet that Miles Morales won’t cost you the earth.
The fact that it’s a PS5 title, though, could complicate things, especially if Sony sees fit to ramp up retail prices for next-gen titles.
Spider-Man PS5: how long is it?
It’s been revealed by the game’s creative director, Brian Horton, that Miles Morales will take the same length of time to play as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which clocked in at 7-10 hours.
A blog post by Horton revealed that “You’ll experience a full story arc with Miles, one that’s more akin to a game like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in terms of overall scope. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an important, heartfelt, emotional and essential experience to expanding the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe. And we hope it will be for you as well.”
Spider-Man: Miles Morales performance
Being a next-gen title means that expectations are high for Spider-Man: Miles Morales when it comes to its visuals and performance. Insomniac has confirmed that the game will support an optional 4K/60fps ‘Performance Mode’ for those who prefer a higher frame rate.
Swing through the city like never before on PS5 with an optional 4K / 60fps Performance Mode. #MilesMoralesPS5 #SpiderManPS5 pic.twitter.com/FhPEPLjnKLJuly 20, 2020
At the moment, we don’t have any details on what the game’s ‘Quality Mode’ will offer. However, with ‘Performance Mode’ offering 60 fps at 4K, it’s possible that ‘Quality Mode’ will place features like Ray-Tracing front and center at the expense of that high frame rate.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales story and gameplay
If you played 2018’s Spider-Man, you’ll have seen Miles before as a supporting character, so it’s not overly surprising to see him head up his own title.
But Brian Horton writes that players can expect “a new story, with new set-pieces, fresh villains, and unique quests across Marvel’s New York City” – asserting that Miles’ “multicultural background reflects a more modern, diverse world” and “we knew that Miles’s origin story as a Spider-Man was something that needed its own game.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in August 2020, Insomniac re-iterated that the game would not be a full-blown sequel and will instead have a story with a length comparable to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Creative Director Brian Holden said it’s “a full arc for Miles Morales that started in Spider-Man” and that Insomniac is “completing this hero’s coming of age in our game. It is a complete story.”
It was also confirmed that the story will take place one year after 2018’s Spider-Man game. The story will involve a power struggle between a high-tech criminal organization and an energy corporation, with Miles’ home in Harlem caught in the middle.
New Spider-Man: Miles Morales screenshot from EWhttps://t.co/TFfKqGWX66 pic.twitter.com/0oeqh1Nj5ZAugust 13, 2020
The Entertainment Weekly article also revealed that Miles will very much be “his own Spider-Man”, with his own movements, animations and powers, such as bioshock and invisibility, which will distinguish him from Peter Parker. The game’s trailer opens with Miles’ hands seemingly in a power generator or fuse box of some kind, suggesting he may get to use his shocks for more than just stunning villains.
Speaking of villains, in the trailer we caught sight of someone with the hulking mechanical claws and purple aesthetic of The Prowler, as featured in Into The Spider-Verse (and also Miles’ uncle). In the trailer it seems to be a different person, meaning we could be seeing a new interpretation of the villain – or just one with a lot of similarly-equipped underlings.
Spider-Man PS5: will Peter Parker return?
Those hoping for a more direct sequel to Marvel’s Spider-Man shouldn’t be disappointed, either. Horton reassured fans that Peter Parker will return in some form, likely in a full-blown sequel, though it doesn’t sound like he’ll get much of a look-in for this particular title, if any:
“Oh and one last thing: Many of you fans have wondered if Peter Parker is OK. Don’t worry, we still have much of Peter’s story left to tell. But this game is all about Miles, a critical part of our Spider-Man universe, and you won’t want to miss what happens.”